Dim Sum Buffet @ Ban Heng Pavilion Restaurant

Ban Heng Pavilion Restaurant - 萬興樓(formerly Dragon Gate Restaurant) most probably offers the cheapest Dim Sum Buffet around Singapore with close to 30 different varieties of steamed and deep-fried dim sum together with porridge, soup and desserts.

Having Dim Sum Buffet for weekday lunch is a total blessing while others are rushing for their quick lunch bite within lunch hour. While waiting for the dim sum to be served, you can help yourself with their smooth and fragrant century egg porridge or some dessert of your choice. (Photo: Lotus root soup, century egg porridge, mango sago, read bean soup and almond jelly with cocktail)

The Steamed Custard Bun (香甜奶皇包) comes in a basket of 4 buns but I was quiet disappointed with their custard fillings which is not those flowing lava type which I had from Victor's Kitchen(read more HERE) sometime back. The custard fillings shown above was rather like paste form which is dried and not really towards my preference.

Look at these puffing Steamed Shrimp Paste Dumpling with Parsley (鲜虾香茜饺) that serves in a basket of 4. Each dumpling is filled with fresh and crunchy prawn but pity the skin and texture was too dry perhaps it had being left aside for quite sometime before serving.

Love their Steamed Meat Dumplings with Crab Roes (蚧璜蒸烧卖) as the texture was very crunchy with sweet juicy filling that leaves you craving for more than 1 serving.

From the Deep-fried category we tried both the savory and sweet dim sum such as Deep Fried Wanton(脆炸云吞) and Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings(沙律明虾枣) on 1st row follow by Deep Fried Sweet Sesame Ball(香甜芝麻枣) and Deep Fried Water-chestnut Cake(脆皮马蹄条)shown on 2nd row. Out of the 4 items above, we love their Sweet Sesame Ball which has a crispy outer skin and not so sweet fillings, very addicting snacks .

If has to make a choice between the Deep Fried Roll with Chicken and Prawn(风凰卷) and Deep Fried Sweet Potato Roll(水果网中卷) I would vote for the sweet potato roll because I love the texture of the nested wrapped with a layer of sweet mashed potato.

Other than the above, we also tried their Stir-fry Spinach, Fried Noodles with Bean Sprout which we love and Barbecued Pork With Honey, Shrimp Paste Wrapped with Bean Curd Skin and etc.

Before coming for this dim sum buffet I have read up a few recommending sites and some it have rather negative feedback on either their food or the service staffs. For us, we find the quality of their food are still quite acceptable for the price that we are paying and the serving staffs of that days are also very friendly towards most of the customers.

But there is one thing that I would like to bring up, I notice that some of their utensils and plates are not thoroughly wash as there are still some porridge or dessert stains found on some of their serving spoons at the buffet line.

BAN HENG PAVILION RESTAURANT

1 Maritime Square
#04-01 Harbour Front Centre
Singapore 099253
Telephone: 6278 0288
Website: http://www.banhengrestaurant.com/

Opening Hours:-
Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.00pm

A clear view of their Weekdays Dim Sum Lunch Menu with pricing range from S$12.80++/adult and S$9.80++/child(age 3 -11 years old). For your information their buffet Lunch hours starts from 11.30am - 2.30pm with a minimum of 4 adults. They also provides "Weekends" Dim Sum Buffet at a slightly higher price which you can call their reservation line @ 6278 0288 for more details.

Dim Sum @ Victor's Kitchen, Sunshine Plaza

Being located on ground level in Sunshine Plaza, Victor's Kitchen was only a few stalls away from the well-known "Parklane Zha Yun Tun Mee House" that sells pretty good Wanton Mee. Victor's Kitchen has very simple interior layout with wooden tables and red plastic stools and after securing a table and seats you just need to grab the paper menu from the counter and start ticking off what you want to order.

Finally last weekend I managed to set foot at this coffee-shop style dim sum eatry which I always drool over their Custard Bun whenever I read/saw the related tweets.

Since they don't have Ice Milk Tea on the drinks menu, we decided to try this H.K Summer Ice Ying Yang(香港夏日兵镇鸳鸯)which is a common item on most of the occupied tables. Nothing fancy about this drink which is just a cup of coffee with tea mixture served in a bowl of crashed ice. For us we find the coffee taste is too overpower and can't seems to blend well with the tea which cause it a bit bitter in taste.
Price: H.K Summer Ice Ying Yang(香港夏日兵镇鸳鸯) @ S$2.50 per cup

This is the reason I came here for their famous Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun(黄金流沙包) or also known as "custard bun". Since I have read some mix reviews on these buns regarding about their fillings being too dry out and etc. I immediately cross my fingers when these pipping hot bun arrived and hope that it will have that oozing flow type of custard when we break it open. And thanks God what we had that day was really good from the photo show above, the flowing custard was so tasty with mixture of sweet and savory flavour that makes you crave for more.
Price: Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun(黄金流沙包) @ S$ 3.50 per plate of 3 buns

Although this is known as "Queen Size" Siew Mai but some how or rather we guess it was just another "nickname" as it is not as huge as those serve in "Yum Cha Restaurant(饮茶酒楼)" or neither it is smaller than the usual size. After all we find their siew mai consists more proportion of pork than prawn which makes it more firm and with a "porky" taste too.
Price: Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai (美味蟹皇烧卖) @ S$3.50 per basket

Steamed Glutinous Rice parcel is always one of the must have dim sum items during our visit to any dim sum eateries. The glutinous rice in this Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice(干贝蛋黄腊味珍珠鸡)was soft and with right texture that combines well with the rest of the ingredients.
Price: Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice(干贝蛋黄腊味珍珠鸡) @ S$4.00 per plate

Lastly I was quite disappointed with one of their famous dish which is this Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce(XO酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕). First there was no trace of either scallop or sausage mentioned. Secondly the top layer of the carrot cake seems to be not fully cooked as we still can taste and see the sticky flour mixture on top. And personally I still preferred pan-fried carrot cake compared to this that look soupy like "steamed minced pork" texture.
Price: Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce(XO酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕) @ S$4.00 per plate

Other than the above mentioned dim sum, Victor's Kitchen also provided some other common dim sum such as Spring Roll, Chicken and Fish Porridge, Assorted Cheong Fun, Dumplings and Double-boiled Egg White and etc. So if you like traditional style of Hong Kong dim sum or you happen to by-pass Sunshine Plaza area perhaps you can consider to try out some of their famous dim sum dishes. Prices for their Dim Sum range from between S$2.50 to S$4.30 per plate.

Victor's Kitchen
91 Bencoolen Street
Sunshine Plaza
#01-21
Telephone: 9838 2851

Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10.30am to 8.00pm (closed on Monday)

Eastern Restaurant @ Centrepoint

A few of us were invited to a food tasting session last Friday at “The Eastern Restaurant” which is located on the 1st level near the back entrance of Centrepoint Mall, Orchard. We were all very excited about this event because of some highlights on their “New” dishes and their famous "Eastern Yi Ping Steamed Pork Dumpling (东方一品小笼包)” that is freshly made by their Dim Sum Chef.

From their menu you could easily scan through each categories before making your order from the range of Cold Dish, La Mian, Main Dishes, Tim Sum and Desserts. And as usually while waiting for the dishes to be served you could also try out their complimentary sides such as mixed vegetables pickles and braised peanuts which is quite different from the usual braised dark soy sauce type.

First to arrive on the table was this basket of "Eastern Yi Ping Steamed Pork Dumpling (东方一品小笼包)” which is the main item that lures us to this tasting gathering. In Singapore it is not difficult to get Steamed Pork Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) as you can find them easily in most Chinese Dim Sum Restaurants or even food court and hawker centres. But if you are looking for some with thin wrapper, well seasoned filing and lot of soup broth I guess you might have to spend slight more.

But here at Eastern with a reasonable pricing, their "Eastern Yi Ping Steamed Pork Dumpling (东方一品小笼包)” has a fragrance scent from the “Chinese cabbage” that is used as a base on the bamboo basket for the pork dumplings. So before you nip the top off to taste the soup broth you could already smell the lovely scent circulating around your nose which makes it a great combination for both sense and taste.
Price: S$4.00 per basket (4 pieces)

"Wanton with Hot Chilli Sauce (红油抄手)" is one of the famous Chengdu snacks in Sichuan, China. It is a delicious meat dumpling that is cooked with soup broth, chilli oil and spices that makes it taste a little spicy and sourish. Although the filling of these dumplings served at Eastern are well seasoned and moist but we find the accompany chilli sauce was rather a bit too spicy that it actually covers the taste of the dumplings and leaves our mouth with a slight numb feeling.
Price: S$6.00 per plate (6 pieces)

Usually most of the similar "Century Egg with Tofu (皮蛋豆腐)" dish is pair with pork floss or just century eggs iteself but at Eastern restaurant the chef actually drizzle some crunchy peanuts bits on it to contrast with the soft texture of the tofu. Overall we agreed that this is a very tasty cold dish that blends well with the ingredients used as well as their special soy sauce that comes with the tofu.
Price: S$5.00 per plate (New!)

For me I am very particular with chicken dishes especially those ‘cold” chicken such as Hainanese Chicken as I would be totally turn off and lost my appetite if the chicken contain those frozen/strong “smells”. So before I tried this “Chicken Marinated with Shao Shing Wine (绍兴醉鸡)” I was kind of hesitate till I confirmed with Lobs and Maureen that this is worth trying. To my surprised the chicken taste great even without any dipping sauce and it is infused with a very nice shao shing wine aroma that tingle in your taste buds.
Price: S$6.00 per plate

From some read up at the local forum, most people recommend on their "Stewed Beef Noodle (清汤牛腩面)" which is a must try item in from the noodles category. The soup broth is filled with a light and sweet fragrance when taste and it goes well with the spongy hand pulled noodles that makes it a great lunch treat especially on rainy day.
Price: S$8.80 per plate

I have tried a few version of this "Noodle with minced meat & mushroom in spicy sauce (炸酱面)" in different Chinese restaurants. And I find most of the noodles taste quite similar except for the taste of the minced meat sauce which might be either too sweet, salty or sour due to the ingredients used. And since I don’t really fancy dry version of Lai Mian and when I get to try this it is already cold (as we are busy with the photo taking and other dishes) so I could not comment more on this.
Price: S$7.80 per bowl

If you like Sichuan type of sourish food, this "Noodle in Hot & Soup Soup (酸辣汤面)" would definitely be your choice. But remember you have to eat it while hot or else the texture and taste of the noodles would be different.
Price: S$8.00 per bowl

This "Sautéed Green Bean with Minced Pork in Chilli Sauce (干煸四季豆)" is one of my favourite dish among all the dishes that we tried that day. This dish has a lovely fragrant that makes you keep popping those crunchy green bean into your mouth. These green beans have been blanched in hot oil before frying with the minced pork and etc to give that extra wok taste and most importantly this dish is not oily at all.
Price: S$9.80 per plate

"Braised Tofu with Scallop (瑶柱豆腐)" is another good option for Tofu lover where these homemade tofu are deep-fried till golden brown and braised with shredded dried scallop and superior broth.
Price: S$16.00 per plate (New!)

For regular readers of my blog you would notice that our family loves fish dishes so when this "Pickled Fish Soup (酸菜鱼)" is served I was very excited to try it out. But since I am not a person who likes sour dishes I was kind of pull back by the spicy and sour taste of the soup and we also find that the fish is kind of salty too. Perhaps for those who like stronger taste in their food, this would be a great choice to go with steam white rice.
Price: S$15.00 per pot (New!)

When comes to “Braised Pork Belly with Mui Choy (梅菜扣肉)” what is the first thing you would look for, the soft and fatty pork that taste good and not greasy or the rich aroma from the pickled mustard? For me a good pork belly with mui choy dish should be something like when you bite a piece of the meat it should be soft like tofu and the oil from it will burst in your mouth leaving a light fragrance from the mui choy. But this dish at Eastern Restaurant taste rather a bit sweet and I find the pork belly is still not soft enough.
Price: S$12.00 per plate (New!)

“Fu Rong Special Scramble Egg (芙蓉赛螃蟹)” is one of their “New” dishes, which use egg white as the main ingredients. The whites are stir-fried together with crabmeat, green beans and broth/fresh milk till cooked then top with a raw egg yolk. Indeed this is a very special and delicious dish that we all love and before you start eating you have to mix the raw egg yolk into the dish so that the texture of this dish would be even more smooth and fragrant.
Price: S$10.80 per plate (New!)

Although this is not the best "Shanghai Pan Fried Pork Bun (上海生煎包)" that I had ever eat before but the taste is still ok for those who prefer pork bun. For me I find the skin is rather too thick and the filling is not as moist and juicy compared to those that I have tried.
Price: S$4.00 per plate (3 pieces)

We were so excited about this "Steamed Custard Bun (蒸奶黄包)" the moment it was placed on the table. When Maureen (Miss Tam Chiak) starts to break open one of the bun we were all very eager to see the yummy custard oozing out from it. But when she breaks it open, we were quite disappointed as the custard was kind of dry compared to what we look forward to. If you don’t mind having paste like custard, these custard buns are still soft and fragrant to taste.
Price: S$4.50 per basket (3 pieces) (New!)

Deep-fried Red Bean Balls (高丽豆沙) is a very popular dessert in Yunnan, China that always attracts people of all ages. The red bean balls have a crispy outer skin that is infused with a light “egg scent” together with its smooth and fragrant mixture of red bean paste and banana fillings which I am sure you would set aside your diet plan just for that moment.
Price: S$4.50 per plate (3 pieces)

I would like to thank Dennis from Flaunt PR & Communications and Eastern Restaurant (Centrepoint) for having us on this tasting. From more reviews about this tasting you could also refer to the following blogs of those who attended the outing too:- Daniel Food Diary(BanBan), Keropokman, Lobsterpaints and Miss Tam Chiak(Maureen).

There are so many dishes availables during this tasting and out of those, I recommend "Chicken Marinated with Shao Shing Wine (绍兴醉鸡)", "Century Egg with Tofu (皮蛋豆腐)", "Fu Rong Special Scramble Egg (芙蓉赛螃蟹)", "Sautéed Green Bean with Minced Pork in Chilli Sauce (干煸四季豆)" and "Deep-fried Red Bean Balls (高丽豆沙)".

The Eastern Restaurant(Centrepoint) Pte Ltd
(东方｜上海拉面，小笼包)
176 Orchard Road
#01-57 Centrepoint
Singapore 238843
Telephone: 6736 2638
Website: http://www.easternrestaurant.com/

Operating Hours:
Monday - Sunday: 11.00am - 10.00pm

Sweet Spring ~ 糖水春 @ AMK Hub

Does this reminds you on one of the Taiwan Tourism Board advertisement where Jolin Tsai is eating her Mango Shaved Ice - 芒果刨冰 outside a shop? Recently I have found a special dessert shop in central area that served unique “Dim Sum - 点心”, “Tong Shui - 糖水” and as well as some cold dessert like Mango Shaved Ice - 芒果刨冰. I am sure by looking at this Mango shaved Ice photo, you will be keen to know where is this restaurant located at and as well some of their signature food and desserts available.

The restaurant which is known as “Sweet Spring - 糖水春” is located at a cosy area, level 2 of AMK Hub. The design and decoration of the cafe look similar to a modern tea house whereby they have both “indoor” and “outdoor” sitting area. (don’t worry both the area are within the shop itself so it is within in-door with air-conditioning) And from what you can see bold "Red" is used as one of the main colour to contract with the white table top as well as the brown lacquered wood to add texture to the ambience.

Two weeks ago I am very honour to be invited for a food tasting session together with the two hosts, Sharon and Julynn from Sweet Spring and Fish & Co. Through the conversation, I was suprised to hear that Sweet Spring is actually owed by the same owner of “Fish & Co” which is a western restuarnt that is well-known with their Fish & Chips in Singapore.

On that day, our host’s Sharon has prepared about 10 items for the food tasting session and here are the items:- 4 Dim Sum dishes, 1 finger food, 3 hot plus 1 cold dessert, lastly follow by beverage. Now let us sit back (prepared some tissue :p) and let the photos be the evidences of this food review……

First on the list is this “Durian Pastry - 榴莲酥” which is one of their signatures Dim Sum that is in demand on their ordering list. The outer layer of the crust is flaky and crisp while the filling in it is made from pure D24 Durian pulps which gives this pastry a wonderful fragrance and taste. If you are a Durian lover, you will sure love this sweet treat.
[ Durian Pastry - 榴莲酥 : S$4.20]

Next, “Pan-fried Radish Cake - 香煎箩卜糕” which is a new dish on their menu list. According to Sharon this is a “Teochew” style Radish Cake where the chef will pan-fried the cake till the outer layer became slightly golden in colour. Overall, we quite like the soft texture of this radish cake and it goes pretty well with their self-made chilli sauce too.
[Pan-fried Radish Cake - 香煎箩卜糕 : S$4.20]

This is their self-made chilli sauce that is used to serve together with their savory dim sum, as they know most of the Singaporean love to have some spicy dipping sauce to go with their food. To me, this chilli sauce look similar to those “chicken rice’s chilli” but when you taste it the taste is rather different. For those who can take spicy sauce, this will definitely goes well with any of their savory dim sum.

“Steamed Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf - 荷叶饭” is one of the items that attracts me from their menu, especially that day is a few days before the Dumpling Festival. The steamed glutinous rice is nicely wrapped with lotus leaf and served warm in the traditional dim sum bamboo steamer, which actually add extra fragrance and appealing points to this dish.

The moment when you open up the lotus leaf from the parcel, you will smell a great scent of the steamed rice with some light lotus leaf fragrance. Each parcel consists chunk of meat, mushroom and a salted egg yoke. It all depends on how you prefer your steamed glutinous rice to be, for me this might be too over-cooked as I find the rice rather too sticky. But this can be a light flavour for those who do not like the traditional dumpling taste whereby five-spice powder, dried shrimp or etc are used.
[Steamed Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf - 荷叶饭 : S$4.50]

"Steamed Spicy Wantons - 京都云吞" is a like steamed meat dumping with some spicy chili sauce. Personally I don't really like wanton to be served in this way so I can't actually comments much on this dish but Joyce seems to love it with it's spicy sauce.
[Steamed Spicy Wantons - 京都云吞 : S$3.90]

Here comes our favourite "Crispy Chicken Bites - 盐酥鸡" that is perfectly deep-fried till crispy out the outer skin and yet still retain the juicy flavour of the meat. According to the hosts, the chef used chicken thigh meat instead of breast meat for these "bites" in order to achieve tender and juicy texture. Overall these "bites" are full of flavour either eating it plain or with dipping sauce and most importantly these "bites" are not salty compare with those sold in some other snack stalls.
[Crispy Chicken Bites - 盐酥鸡 : S$3.90]

After the savory dim sum shown above, we have some sweet treats here which one of these might interest you. First on the list is my top favourite dessert "Yam Paste With Gingko Nut & Pumpkin - 福果芋泥". Although we nowadays we are able to find this similar dessert being sold in some of the dessert stall at Food Court but it's rather difficult to find some real good one.

Today, at least I managed to find a decent one at “Sweet Spring”. Their Yam Paste with Gingko Nut & Pumpkin really taste great with it’s smooth texture and not so sweet taste. The combination of some chestnut bites in the yam paste brings out extra texture and natural sweetness to this dessert. So I recommend this to be a must try dessert if you really love that cream texture of Teochew Style Yam Paste without going through the hassle of making it at home.
[Yam Paste With Gingko Nut & Pumpkin - 福果芋泥 : S$4.90]

If you prefer something light compare to the above Yam Paste, perhaps you can try this “Steamed Milk Egg White - 双皮奶” which is something similar to egg custard but it is using Egg White and Milk as the main ingredients. Most of us love this dessert, as it is very good to the complexion as well as more health conscious due to the ingredients used. So lady, if you are looking for low-fat dessert or something good for your complexion, try this! :)
[Steamed Milk Egg White -双皮奶 : S$2.80]

Before stepping into this restaurant I have saw the poster and menu about their signature “Homemade Soya Beancurd - 桶仔豆腐花” which is served in a wooden bucket in order to served it warm to the customer. The hosts told us that as each day as early as 8am, the chef will starts to boil the soya bean milk in order to get ready to set the beancurd in each bucket before the restaurant opens at 11:00am during weekdays. This beancurd comes in two sizes which served either 2 or 4 persons and this Homemade Soya Beancurd is not sweeten and each customer gets to add in their desire amount of honey to suit their taste buds.
[Homemade Soya Beancurd - 桶仔豆腐花 : 2 Pax S$4.50, 4 Pax S$7.00]

Other than eating your beancurd with honey, you can also select any topping from their list to go with it starting from $1.00 - S$1.50 depending on your choice. They have Lotus seeds, Longan, Mango, Pearl and etc which all goes well with the beancurd.

Finally here comes our long waiting “Mango Snow Ice - 非常芒果” which is both Joyce and my favourite. Unfortunately I have missed out this important dessert during my Taiwan trip in April, so at least today I can try this out which is very similar to the authentic Taiwan Mango Ice.

From the photo, you can see that the ice is shave layer by layer and it is very smooth and full of mango flavour either on the shaved ice, sauce or mango itself. Overall it is a very good summer dessert that will cool you down from that hot weather. The mango itself is very sweet and juicy and according to Sharon(the host) they actually used mango from Philippines. And each day, the workers will cut and taste each mango in order to standardised the taste and quality of the mango used. So Mango lover what are you waiting for..... :) Come!
[Mango Snow Ice - 非常芒果 : S$5.50]

Before ending our wonderful dim sum and desserts food tasting by Sweet Spring, the hosts also let us have a “big” glass of their Homemade Soya Milk that taste warm and fragrant and as similarly you can either sweeten it with honey or drink it plain. For me I find without adding any honey it taste more natural with it original flavour.

Lastly thanks Sharon & Julynn from Fish & Co for inviting me on this food tasting session. Don't worry for those who stay far away from Ang Mo Kio area, Sweet Spring has new branch coming up at Serangoon area soon too. And other than the above, you can also find a lot of interesting desserts and dim sum such as Mocha Tiramisu, Rainbow Milk Tea with Pearl, Pomelo Sago, Double-boiled Hashima and etc. I am sure there will be one that suits you :)

SWEET SPRING ~ 糖水春
53 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
AMK Hub, #02-19/20/21
Singapore 569933
Telephone: 6753 9856 Fax: 6753 0962
Email: sweetspring@chaozhouinn.com

Operating Hours:
11:00am to 10:00pm, Weekdays
10:00am to 10:00pm, Weekdends